Tag: color

I can’t believe how many great products and designs I’ve seen on my last trip to Poland. The interior design market is changing there rapidly, and there aren’t that many new trends that you can’t find there now; even better – most of them are available at high street retailers, making great design available for many!

But before we go into the New, first let us talk about the Old. First, a find stil bought in the UK, but which I envisage to place in the yellow bedroom I was describing some time ago. For now to keep you in suspense – still in packaging, you will see the final effect when all is ready! This vintage glamour / shabby chic mirror frame cost peanuts and is absolutely amazing; I found it on iBootSale and picked up the next day. As it turned out, it was too big even for my mutant-huge suitcase, so had to ship with DHL. But it was worth it, the new owners are thrilled to have it!

Vintage glamour / shabby chic ornamental mirror frame

As we’re with vintage, when we visited my in-laws, I was in heaven. Here are some more finds. First, the sideboards, etc that my husband’s grandfather hand made some years ago (he was even taking carpenter order for those for local people, and funnily enough I saw a very similar one in some other garage when cycling through the village):

This is another beauty, with more bite to it and gorgeous handles… there is also a sideboard top in another shed but in much worse condition – still there is a chance 🙂

Handmade vintage sideboard by my husband's grandfather

Loads of those around as well… I’ve seen some very nice decors of country kitchens with stove door as a decoration on the wall:

Vintage stove door

…and finally our finds from a nearby house that is being refurbished – a vintage double shelf and an old radio which I am thinking about converting into a night stand. They were just being thrown away so hopefully they will get a second chance 🙂

Vintage find - old double shelfVintage find - old radio frame

And now last truly vintage items. Not obviously planning to do that, and with ideas ranging from ghost chairs to mismatched vintage, we bought 8 chairs 🙂 When we first got into this antique shop, we just came in to browse, and then we came across the two beauties:

I couldn’t decide which ones are better. The raspberry ones worked well with my idea, and I even considered such chairs (with different upholstery); they are also much easier to fit with many styles; glamour, eclectic, shabby chic, etc. The black ones, though, were absolutely original and different to what you normally find, but would not suit our space as they would really require it to be much more upscale than we planned for.

But we couldn’t decide, as both sets were gorgeous. We also had to think through whether they really will work well, how much they will influence other design elements in the house, even what are we going to do with this number of chairs 🙂 At some point we wanted to get both sets, as the black ones were dirt cheap. Having slept over the night dreaming about them, we took a decision – we go again and we buy one set that will work best.

Raspberry Louis style glamour chair

At closer inspection, it turned out that the black chairs were very uncomfortable – what looked as well-formed foam was in fact a nicely shaped plank, or some other piece of wood, and the seats were darn hard. Also, the paint was peeling off at the teeniest touch, and someone actually painted (probably with spray) over part of the fabric at the back. There were a few other elements we didn’t like either.

Generally unhappy about the quality, we turned to the raspberry set. Gosh, that was comfortable 🙂 Very soft, stable, and sturdy in construction; after being told the shop can pressure-clean them, and having got a super-discount, decision was taken and they are OURS! Of course they need re-upholstering and a new coat of finish (and maybe crystal buttons?), but after cleaning they can even serve as they are for the time-being (meaning: when they are in the shed waiting until we move back to Poland, but no one knows when!).

Raspberry Louis style glamour chair

Their versatility will allow me also to use one for a work desk, and another two can work very well with some retro or modern couch.

My mother-in-law even suggested some fabrics for upholstery from her own collection:

Golden and cream upholstery for the chairs

OK! Enough of vintage, I will show you what I found in shops next time 🙂

Here are some interesting blogs and posts about using color in interiors without paint. I love it cause it’s simply my latest flick – the white walls, that is. This is especially useful also for those renting out their flats and houses, as you usually cannot paint the walls.

Bo concept for 2010 by AphroChicDecanters from Designalogue

…and now to my favorite… the living room by Lizzie Chambers. I love, love, LOVE! Why?

First – Barcelona chair and ottoman, can any space look wrong with it?? The table is also on my wish list for a long time now.

Second – soo my palette. All white with accents of bold color.

Third – the place is tiny! And yet cosy, and comfortable. This layout would actually work perfect with my tiny living room, the long wall substituted for my balcony wall… yes, yes, I can see that!

HA! How super-cool! Thisfree color palette generatorshows you all colors that constitute any image you upload to it – so that if any image inspires you, you know exactly what these colors are and you can use them in decorating 🙂

Three posts ago I let you know that I am about to design a bedroom for a 20-year old, with one constant: pink walls with purple accent. I know also what pieces of furniture Alex has and needs to keep and what else she’d like to see.

Important note: This is an attic room. This software does not support slanted walls, though, therefore I only had to assume it in my calculations… the slanted wall is the one on the left of the rendering (where the bed is), not shown. Try to imagine that if it did show, it would finish around 10-20cm from the window.This is why I have not put any wardrobe etc there – as there simply is no space 🙂

Here is the first sample of what I am thinking of:

Alex's bedroom with Fornasetti wallpaper

In this version, I tried to downplay the pinky aspect of the room by glueing the Fornasetti – themed wallpaper on the wall opposite entrance to the room. This way the first impression is of a striking design, and the pink is very much in the background. Since the wallpaper has such muting tremendous effect, I allowed myself to bring pink out again with a few accessories.

I have chosen white as the classic color that goes well with pink; this, paired with crystal wardrobe knobs and stylized chaise strenghtens the room’s femininity.

Here are the potentially contentious items:

white furniture; the set at hand is light wood, so either needs repaining (recommended) or can stay as is, but this will downplay the room from the delicate glamour to a more contemporary look. Handles ideally would be changed to crystal in this version too.

chaise longue; more expensive than an armchair and also blocks direct access to the window. However, it complements the look beautifully and gives it a relaxed and luxury feel. Will try to use an armchair in the next one, though.

“I’ve noticed that you prefer white recently” wrote my Mum through IM a few days ago. Do I? I guess I do. Although I’m ashamed to admit it, it took me some time to acknowledge white as a color. I’ve always loved bold colors (even though my red bedroom was giving me headaches during my uni years). With time, however, perhaps the more interiors I’ve seen, the more I’ve learned how colors dramatically influence how we perceive everything around us.

White is a great background to both statement pieces of art, and bold color accents. If you want to display a treasured painting, a gorgeous chair or any other item – what better background than white?? (unless the item is white 🙂 )

White works for everyone. It makes interiors seem timeless, elegant, fresh. It’s exactly why we call it the blank canvas – everyone can imagine themselves in the space, even if to decide what other colors to use. It’s easy on our imagination, bluntly speaking.

But most importantly,white = space. They are almost synonyms. It will always create this feeling of spaciuosness, so desired in small places.

And yet, surprisingly, white seems to be used more in big spaces rather than small flats. I’ve realized it when looking through my inspirations collections to choose images for today’s post. All the post-industrial, ex-school buldings, lofts, barn conversions and quite a number of old big mansions boast the white interiors. So why not small flats? (And yes I know I admit my kitchen is green and my bathroom orange! I’m not saying everything needs to be white 🙂 )

Anyway here are some not-so-big-or-expensive places that I hope will inspire everyone to the gorgeous white…

Ah… coast! Ah… sea, ocean, lakes and rivers! But how many of us can have a view like that?

Harmony And Home Beach house dining room

With such exterior, it really does not take much to create a wow factor inside the house, as the outside is the main decoration.

However, even if you don’t live by the beach (and you probably don’t), there is anyway nothing to stop you from replicating that coastal look, bringing the feelings of ambience, relaxation, comfort and serenity. I have chosen a few images of beautiful interiors which you can achieve without this amazing view or huge windows. Get inspired with soothing cool color palette, clean spaces and comfortable lounge seating.

…bring light and subtlety to your bedroom:

The Heart of the Sea Home bedroomHarmony and Home bedroomVisual Vamp bedroomA Room Somewhere bedroom

…interesting twist to your hall:

Harmony and Home hall

…add a theme to your living room to liven it up:

Decor Medley boat room

One of the reappearing elements of coastal design is the wood panelling. Some of us actually have it in older homes we buy (and actually my parents did in the place they sold just last year), so why not paint it white with this gorgeous effect?

Marley and Lockyer living room

…how about a funny and inspiring kid’s bedroom?

Betib's kid's room

…the most obvious place – the bathroom:

M jak mieszkanie bathroomRoom Envy bathroom

… and don’t be afraid to accessorize!

A Life's Design coastal accessoriesThe Heart of the Sea Home accessories

I have started playing with a really cool and free interior design software – My deco. It allows for creation of a moodboard – either from uploaded images, or from the existing galleries, or even from websites by installing a plugin allowing to copy any image you see in the Internet to your gallery. Then you can share your moodboard with others.

However, what’s really great is the Design a 3D room interior design software. Not only has it a gallery of real items, so that you create more realistic spaces; you even are given all the information on the shop, price and can actually buy the item straight from the program. While you probably won’t do it too often, the advantage it gives is that the price list of the whole room is generated when the room is ready.

Finally, the absolute best is the free rendering this program offers! You have to wait a few hours, sometimes even a day or two (probably due to demand), but the result is really realistic for free software! And you don’t need to know anything about that – rendering is automatic.

And now to…

My FIRST project!

…just as well I found it as I needed to quickly design a bedroom. Some details: walls of these energetic 40-something year-olds’ bedroom are already of creamy yellow color, so color scheme and accessories needed to be chosen around that. I prepared two versions to match the homeowners’ personalities:

a glamour – style inspiredversion with stylized mirrors and lamps, and ornamental wallpaper;

and a more contemporary one, with simpler shapes and striped wallpaper.

Naturally these are still drafts to be consulted for a more final look.

Please remember that I just started using it and am only getting to know the program’s possibilities; I thought, however, that I’ll share with you those first samples, mixing both styles (as it is yet unclear which one will be preferred).

Before the rendering, in the editing mode, you can get images like this: